U'khand cabinet is a good mix of old and new faces

Governor Gurmeet Singh administered the oath of office and secrecy to Dhami in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President JP Nadda. Besides Dhami, 8 MLAs also took oath as ministers. While Chandan Ram Das, Premchand Agarwal, Saurabh Bahuguna have been introduced in Dhami's cabinet, Dhan Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Ganesh Joshi, Satpal Maharaj, Rekha Arya have been repeated in the cabinet.

Dehradun: BJP leader Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday took oath as the 12th Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. Governor Gurmeet Singh administered the oath of office and secrecy to Dhami in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP National President JP Nadda. Besides Dhami, 8 MLAs also took oaths as ministers.

While Chandan Ram Das, Premchand Agarwal, Saurabh Bahuguna have been introduced in Dhami's cabinet, Dhan Singh Rawat, Subodh Uniyal, Ganesh Joshi, Satpal Maharaj, Rekha Arya have been repeated in the cabinet. Let us take a look at the newly sworn-in cabinet ministers in the Dhami cabinet.

The old faces:

Dhan Singh Rawat: Dhan Singh Rawat is known for his own style of working. He was born on 7 October 1971 in village Naugaon of Garhwal district. In 1989, Rawat joined the RSS as a volunteer and has done an MA in History and Ph.D. in Political Science.

During his younger days, Rawat had campaigned against untouchability, child marriage, and alcoholism. He also actively participated in the movement for the formation of the Uttarakhand state. During this, he was also jailed twice.
During his student days as a member of ABVP, Rawat spent 60 days in earthquake-affected areas after the earthquake in Uttarkashi and Chamoli and helped people during this period. He reached the assembly for the first time in 2017 after winning from the Srinagar assembly seat. He is among the top leaders of the party.

Subodh Uniyal: Subodh Uniyal, who was once the face of Congress, has remained BJP's trusted man for some time now. The party has again expressed confidence in Subodh Uniyal, who has held the responsibility of cabinet minister and official spokesperson in the Uttarakhand government. He won from the Narendra Nagar assembly seat. Subodh Uniyal was born on 26 July 1960 in Narendranagar, Tehri.

Uniyal did engineering from Allahabad University and became active in politics in 1978. Later, he came in contact with Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna who guided him in politics. Uniyal has also been the General Secretary of Yuva Lok Dal, Uttar Pradesh from 1984 to 1989.

In 1989, he became the vice-president of the Uttar Pradesh Youth Congress. After the formation of separate Uttarakhand in 2002, Subodh Uniyal was given the responsibility of the Congress State General Secretary. He was also the state vice-president in the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee in 2012.

Satpal Maharaj: Satpal Maharaj has won from Chaubattakhal seat. He had been a cabinet minister in the BJP government in 2017. Before that, he was in Congress.

Maharaj is also a spiritual teacher. Maharaj has also been a minister of state in the Deve Gowda and Gujral government of the Centre. He was a cabinet minister in the previous Dhami government also.

Rekha Arya: She is the only woman minister in the BJP government in Uttarakhand, who represents the Someshwar assembly of Almora. In the previous BJP government too, Rekha Arya was involved in the government as the only woman minister. She became a Zilla Panchayat member for the first time in 2003.

In 2012, she contested from Someshwar Vidhan Sabha as an independent candidate but stood second. After that, she joined Congress. In 2014, Rekha Arya contested the by-election from Someshwar Vidhan Sabha on a Congress ticket, then she won.

Rekha Arya joined the BJP in 2017 ahead of the assembly elections. She reached assembly on a BJP ticket. Later, BJP made her a minister of state.

Ganesh Joshi: Joshi is originally from the Pithoragarh district. He was born in 1958 in Meerut. His father Late Shyam Dutt Joshi was posted as a soldier of the Indian Army in Meerut.

Joshi served in the Indian Army as a soldier from 1976 to 1983. He is an MLA from Mussoorie, which he has been winning repeatedly. In Dhami's first term, he was made a cabinet minister.
Premchand Agarwal: Agarwal was the speaker of the fourth assembly. In the elections held for the fifth assembly, he contested from Rishikesh seat.

New Faces

Chandanram Das: Chandanram Das is an MLA from Bageshwar. He is joining the cabinet for the first time. Das has been an MLA for four consecutive terms known as a humble man.